Shaky defense a main factor in the Red Sox’ sluggish start

BOSTON — A little more than three weeks into the season, there are few consistent truths about the Red Sox’ performance so far. One of them is this: Boston has been bad defensively.There are legitimate...

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TIM BRITTON
Posted Apr. 23, 2014 @ 10:29 pm

BOSTON — A little more than three weeks into the season, there are few consistent truths about the Red Sox’ performance so far. One of them is this: Boston has been bad defensively.

There are legitimate excuses for this — injuries to Shane Victorino and Will Middlebrooks, the youth up the middle of Xander Bogaerts. But the Red Sox can’t deny that their defense has been below average.

“We’ve given some extra outs,” manager John Farrell said after Tuesday’s loss. “At this level, when you do that, you’re asking for trouble. We have to go out and execute with greater efficiency.”

The hard thing to figure out is exactly how bad the defense has been. How much is it costing Boston in the first few weeks of the season?

Entering play on Wednesday, the Red Sox had committed 14 errors — tied for the sixth-most in the American League. Boston’s two errors on Tuesday led to five unearned runs, which equaled the amount they allowed in all of April last season. If Mike Napoli makes a play he usually does in the top of the fifth, four Yankees runs don’t score in that frame.

But errors and unearned runs and fielding percentage paint a very narrow portrait of team defense. Errors are subject to the vagaries of a scorekeeper and baseball’s fairly stringent definition of an error. For instance, Derek Jeter saw a ball go through his legs on Wednesday, and it went for a hit.

Those who have watched the Red Sox with any regularity have seen their fair share of similar plays that, while not errors, should have been made. On Tuesday, Grady Sizemore broke late on a sinking line drive into right field. As he slid to try to make the catch, the ball bounced out of his glove. Ruled a hit, it placed more stress on starter Jon Lester.

Another way of examining the play of a defense is to look broadly at a pitching staff’s batting average on balls in play. In other words, how well does a defense turn contact into outs?

The Red Sox entered Wednesday allowing a .326 average on balls in play — the second-highest in the A.L. Not all of this is attributable to bad defense, as you can’t expect Boston defenders to glove every sharply hit ball. But 21 games is starting to resemble more of a meaningful team-wide sample size, especially in relation to the roughly league average .294 the Red Sox allowed on balls in play last season.

More player-specific measures such as defensive runs saved and ultimate zone rating don’t grade the Sox kindly. Bogaerts is already five runs below average at short. Sizemore is four runs below average in center, which is why Bradley is going to play there a lot almost regardless of how he performs offensively.

“You’re taking guys that are gaining experience at the major-league level, which is going to be different than any minor-league setting that they’ve ever been involved in,” Farrell said of Bogaerts and Bradley. “The talent is there, the work ethic is there. And yet we’ve got to ride the ebb and flow a little bit, because of the inexperience.”

The good news is that the imminent returns of Victorino and Middlebrooks should lend some stability back to the defense. Fresh off his deserved Gold Glove, Victorino can patrol right field as well as anyone in baseball. Middlebrooks isn’t that caliber of a defender, but he’s better and more consistent than replacement options Jonathan Herrera and Brock Holt.

Furthermore, Victorino’s return can sort out what has been a bit of a mess in the outfield. Grady Sizemore started the season in center field, moved to left once Jackie Bradley, Jr. staked his claim to center, and has now played right of late. For a lifelong center fielder with little practice time in the corners, it’s been a whirlwind for Sizemore.

With Victorino back in the fold, Sizemore can presumably focus on left field.

“We see him as more of a corner outfielder at this point than in center field,” Farrell said. “We’re doing what we can to shorten down that curve to being more efficient.”

“He’s doing the best he can with it,” said first-base coach Arnie Beyeler, who works with the outfielders. “He’s doing what he needs to do, he works at it. It’s all he can do. It’s what we need right now, and he’s been willing to jump on that and attack it. We’re fortunate he’s athletic enough to do that.”